At one time, Scottsdale Estates was a nice place to live. But the gated condo complex in Carson deteriorated long ago into a haven for drugs and gang crime.

Now it is most known as the site of a fire that killed five children in 2005. Neighbors tried to rescue them, but they couldn’t pry off the burglar bars.

City officials have made several attempts to clean up Scottsdale over the years, but most efforts have been thwarted by a governing system that is as broken down as the community itself.

All initiatives must go through one person, Cyd Balque, and she tends to resist outside intrusions. Balque (pronounced BAL-cue) has single-handedly controlled Scottsdale for a decade, without ever winning an election.

But for the last few months, she has been forced to wage a bitter battle to hang on to power. She has relied on intimidation, both of residents as well as the city officials who have tried to help them. The struggle culminated in a homeowners association election last month that featured a standoff between Balque’s armed security guards and sheriff’s deputies.

“We have a rogue group of homeowners,” Balque said in a recent interview. “The election that was called was an illegal election.”

For now, Balque still clings to power. At stake is control of $1.7 million in annual condo dues, as well as the future of Scottsdale.

“We’re just trying to get this community some help,” said Marco Caal, one of the leaders of the opposition group. “She’s not letting anybody vote. It’s like Chavez in Venezuela.”

Asked why he believed Balque was fighting so hard to keep control of the association, Caal said, “My point of view? It’s money.”

The current opposition movement was sparked last summer, when Balque sent out a note announcing that she had raised assessments by 20 percent. Residents started to ask where their money was going.

One of them, Woody Rowell, had just been laid off from his job as an accountant. He had plenty of time on his hands to read up on condo law and to gather signatures against the increase. His initial efforts got no response from the board, so he called for a special meeting to elect a new one.

But it was not going to be that easy. On the night of the meeting, Rowell and his group found that the clubhouse had been locked. The security guards would not let him in.

A few days later, residents found another memo in their mailboxes, advising that a “rogue group of homeowners” had tried to break into the clubhouse in an effort to “usurp” the board.

“These individuals and their accomplices will be identified and prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law,” the letter stated.

It was signed by the “Scottsdale Board of Governors,” though residents say it was written by Balque.

Facing a threat, Balque decided to clamp down. She shut down the clubhouse for good. Then she evicted the Boys and Girls Club, which had run a low-cost day-care program there for the previous two years. Then she brought in more security guards to stand watch outside.

The message was clear: She would not go without a fight.

Balque was first appointed to the board in 1997. She was made treasurer, and quickly discovered what she called serious financial abuses by many of the board members. Some members, she said, had used association funds to pay personal expenses, and some had allowed their friends to remain delinquent on dues.

Balque hired a lawyer and sued the board members, spending thousands of dollars in the process. By early 1999, six board members had run out of money and agreed to resign to settle the case.

In a letter to the judge, however, they claimed that Balque had illegally seized control of the association offices and had changed the locks. They also said she had threatened to call immigration on a fellow board member who complained.

“She believes herself to be a dictator or ruler who can overthrow the whole board without the proper procedures,” they wrote. “The Scottsdale residents are in extreme danger of having a disaster happen.”

The board members said that they had been attacked by Balque’s supporters and that they feared for the safety of their families.

With her enemies removed, Balque quickly consolidated control of the board. She and another board member appointed eight new members, and she has been in command ever since.

She inherited an association deeply in debt. Property values were dropping due to years of deferred maintenance.

The city of Carson set up a partnership with several nonprofit groups to help rehabilitate the neighborhood. But one of the conditions was that the board hold an election to help restore confidence.

Balque saw the outside consultants and organizers as meddlers in Scottsdale’s affairs. When the time came to hold an election, few participated.

“We were waiting and waiting,” said City Clerk Helen Kawagoe, who was called in to preside over the vote. “They didn’t have a bullhorn, so I gave them $100 for a bullhorn so they could tell everyone to come. But nobody came.”

According to Scottsdale’s bylaws, a majority of the homeowners must vote in order to reach a quorum. In a community of 600 town homes, that means 301 homeowners must cast ballots. Without a quorum, the previous board is automatically re-elected.

The majority of the community is Latino, and many residents do not speak English. Many are renters and cannot vote without a proxy from their landlords. And many others have no interest in condo association affairs.

Apathy is a common problem for condominium boards, and many handle it by lowering or eliminating the quorum requirement. Often that is the only way to elect a new board. As an example, if the city of Los Angeles required 50 percent turnout for its elections, then the late Tom Bradley would still be mayor.

Without a quorum, Balque and her allies stayed in control. The partnership with the city fell apart, and without another source of funds, the association declared bankruptcy.

In the bankruptcy filing, Balque was listed as one of the association’s creditors, apparently because she had decided she could be repaid for $30,000 worth of attorneys’ fees.

In 2003, a group of homeowners tried to oust Balque from the board. According to a letter from their attorney, Gerald Silver, the residents gathered 340 proxy votes to elect a new board.

Balque handled that by simply refusing to accept the votes and declaring herself re-elected. When Silver protested, her armed guards threw him out of the meeting.

“It was a gang mentality,” Silver recalls. “I’d never had anything where you’d try to go to a meeting and they’d hire security to keep homeowners out.”

Silver threatened to sue, but his clients couldn’t afford to pay him and they reluctantly gave up.

Two years later, there was the fire that killed five children. City officials again felt obliged to try to help. Mayor Jim Dear proposed setting aside as much as $20 million of redevelopment money to buy up property at Scottsdale and refurbish it.

That would have given the city a voice on the board, and so, naturally, Balque resisted. At one point, she refused to meet with city officials in public, which made it almost impossible to work out a deal.

Ultimately, all she would allow was the Boys and Girls Club to open an after-school program.

“We’ve had politically motivated people come here in the past and what they did here was not in the residents’ best interest,” she explained at the time.

Balque claims credit for making some improvements at Scottsdale over the last decade. Though on the whole the community is still badly dilapidated, the clubhouse has been refurbished and some buildings have been painted.

Balque also says she has helped turn around the association financially. In a recent letter to residents, she argued that when she took over 10 years ago, the association was owed $600,000 in unpaid dues.

Now the association is owed only $400,000, she said. That seems to be because the board has become much more rigorous about collections. If residents fall behind, they can quickly find themselves dealing with collections agents.

The association is also aggressive about parking citations. Residents often complain that their cars are towed for the slightest infraction, and that it costs $200 each time to get them back. The association’s revenues from parking fines have doubled in the last two years.

According to a recent consultant’s study, however, the association still has only $26,000 in reserves. It is also facing a backlog of $1.9 million worth of roofing, painting and repaving jobs that still need to be done.

That’s why dues were raised last summer from $200 to $240 per month, said Flavia Andersen, the only other board member who agreed to be interviewed. Andersen and her husband live in Harbor City but own three units in Scottsdale.

“They’re bitching about $40,” Andersen said. “It’s for our own good.”

Andersen said the current board wants to maintain control to protect its investments. She said board members are volunteers and draw no income for their efforts.

“We are not doing anything illegal. Cyd is a very honest, Christian person,” she said. “We just believe God is going to help us through this, and the truth is going to come out.”

After he was turned away from the clubhouse last fall, Rowell and his allies regrouped and came up with a new strategy. They read in the bylaws that the association was required to elect a new board at an annual meeting in March.

So they drew up ballots and sent out notices around the community, in an effort to finally make a quorum. They campaigned on a pledge to reopen the clubhouse and bring back the Boys and Girls Club, which had provided day care for 50 children virtually for free.

They also called the city for help. Kawagoe agreed to come down and preside over the election again.

When Balque found out that Kawagoe was involved, she called the city clerk and threatened to have her arrested, Kawagoe said.

Balque also sent out another memo to residents warning that an “illegal” and “frivolous” election had been called by the “rogue homeowners,” and that city officials were again meddling in Scottsdale’s affairs.

On March 10, the date set forth in the bylaws for the annual meeting, the clubhouse was locked. The security guards tried to prevent the homeowners from gathering, but then Kawagoe showed up with eight sheriff’s deputies in tow.

“Her security guards just backed off,” Kawagoe said.

The election was held on the steps. Kawagoe counted 221 ballots, almost all of which were cast for Rowell and his slate of 14 candidates. Though the turnout was far higher than in 2000, it was not enough for a quorum.

“With God’s help, we were triumphant in preventing this rogue group from illegally gaining access to the association’s office,” Balque said in a memo. “They still fell way short of the required votes.”

Both sides have since hired attorneys and appear to be headed to court. After answering a few questions from the Daily Breeze, Balque referred further inquiries to the board’s attorney, Sandra Gottlieb.

Gottlieb said the board is working toward holding an election as soon as June.

“The members really get to decide this,” she said. “If they want the other group, they’ll be let in.”

However, Gottlieb said she would advise the board to make two attempts to make quorum. If a majority does not show up, the current board will stay in power.

“At some point,” Gottlieb said “it’s a waste of association time and money to try to have an annual meeting if homeowners are not interested.”